Tuesday, April 8, 2025

 

Monday, April 7, 2025

 Monday Night at the Movies

King of Kings 1927

Sunday, April 6, 2025

 

This is AI but nice.

Saturday, April 5, 2025

 

Friday, April 4, 2025

 

Thursday, April 3, 2025

Rachel’s Corner

His dominion is vast and forever peaceful,

Upon David’s throne, and over his kingdom,

which he confirms and sustains by judgment and justice,

both now and forever.

(Isaiah 9:6)

·         National Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. till April 13

o    The nation’s capital comes abloom every spring with the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival. See the famed cherry blossom trees, lining the Tidal Basin, while strolling by iconic sites like the Jefferson and Martin Luther King memorials.

• National Burrito Day
• Have a Dirty Maria cocktail with it in honor of St. Maria of Egypt

• Marlon Brando, born on April 3, 1924, was a remarkable actor known worldwide.

·         Spirit Hour: Black Maria Cocktail in honor of St. Maria of Egypt

• As the weather gives warmer plan to go an outdoor theater
• Check out countries that will pay you to move there

·         do a personal eucharistic stations of the cross.

·         Bucket List trip: Nile River Cruise

·         30 Days with St. Joseph Day 16

·         Month of the Military Child

• Try “Sopa de Ajo[8]”

Thursday Feast

Thursday is the day of the week that our Lord gave himself up for consumption. Thursday commemorates the last supper. Some theologians believe after Sunday Thursday is the holiest day of the week. We should then try to make this day special by making a visit to the blessed sacrament chapel, Mass or even stopping by the grave of a loved one. Why not plan to count the blessing of the week and thank our Lord. Plan a special meal. Be at Peace.

·         According to Mary Agreda[9] in her visions it was on a Thursday at six o'clock in the evening and at the approach of night that the Angel Gabriel approached and announced her as Mother of God and she gave her fiat.

Best Places to Visit in April[10]

Sedona is a beautiful destination year-round. The most popular seasons are March through May and September through mid-December. Lodging rates are slightly lower in July and August, but the most economical prices of the year are available from the first week of January to mid-February. 

Spring Season – March through May 

Spring is Sedona's busiest visitor season and it's easy to see why. With average high temperatures in the mid-60s to low 80s (degrees Fahrenheit) and lows that are refreshingly chilly, its perfect weather for Sedona's outdoor activities like hiking, jeep tours, and shopping in Uptown Sedona. You'll want to make sure not to miss the spectacle of "Sedona's evening entertainment" an explosively colorful sunset behind Sedona's red rocks. Pro Tip: Be sure to book your Sedona tour or activities several months in advance. You don't want to miss out on the most popular activities during this, Sedona's busiest season. 

Today’s Menu is from Arizona

• 24 CARROT GOLD PUNCH
• Shrimp Enchiladas with Green Sauce

·         Grilled Southwestern Potato Salad

·         Icebox Cookies

o    After Dinner Cigars

 April 3 Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

 Nehemiah, Chapter 6, Verse 12-13

¹² For on consideration, it was plain to me that God had not sent him; rather, because Tobiah and Sanballat had bribed him, he voiced this prophecy concerning me, ¹³ that I might act on it out of FEAR and commit this sin. Then they would have had a shameful story with which to discredit me.

 

Whenever you rebuild you will meet opposition. Here, much like today those in opposition will conspire against you. Nothing seems to change with human nature. Just look at the current events with our own country being rebuilt. According to John Maxwell Commitment is needed before anything else in a leader’s life.

 

Summary of Nehemiah’s Action[1]

·         When Israel's enemies—Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem again—hear that the wall's been completed, they ask to meet with Nehemiah.

·         Nehemiah sees that they plan to do him harm. No fool, this guy.

·         He refuses, asking why he should take time off from his work to do this.

·         They ask him four times, and he answers in the same way. No dice.

·         The fifth time, they up the ante.

·         The enemies' servant brings a letter saying that they've heard that the Jews intend to rebel against the Empire and that Nehemiah wants to be their king, with the prophets supporting him.

·         Nehemiah knows they're just trying to intimidate him.

·         He tells them that they're making all this stuff up just to scare them away from rebuilding.

·         He still won't meet with them. Talk to the hand.

·         Nehemiah goes to visit a guy named Shemaiah who says (actually, falsely prophesies) that they should go hide in the temple, since men are coming to kill Nehemiah.

·         Nehemiah cleverly sees that Shemaiah's been hired by Sanballat and Tobiah to trick him and make him an object of ridicule.

·         Only priests are allowed in the temple, so obviously he's trying to get our man to break the law.

·         He asks God not to forget what Shemaiah and the wicked prophetess Noadiah and other prophets did to try to trick him.

·         The wall's finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Elul, impossibly fast.

·         The surrounding nations are all disheartened and scared by this.

·         They understand that God supports the Jews, since they haven't even been able to get their contractor to return their phone calls.

·         Nehemiah also mentions that some of the nobles were friends with Tobiah, due to his family's intermarrying with Jews.

·         The nobles try to make Tobiah sound good in Nehemiah's presence, while Tobiah sends Nehemiah letters designed to intimidate him.

Four Characteristics of Those Who Complete a Task[2]

 

Nehemiah drew out others and inspired them to complete the wall in 52 days: despite his adversities. When we complete a good work we can say with Nehemiah, “All our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things…they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God”. Leaders who complete tasks have:

 

1.      A compelling purpose: They make a great commitment to a great cause.

2.      A clear perspective: They don’t let fear cloud their view of the future.

3.      A continual prayer: They pray about everything and gain God’s favor.

4.      A courageous persistence: They move ahead despite the odds.

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent[3]

Prayer.

GRANT, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we, who are chastised by the fasts we have undertaken, may rejoice with holy devotion; that, our affections being weakened, we may more easily apprehend heavenly things.

EPISTLE, iv. Kings iv. 25-38.

In those days a Sunamite woman came to the man of God to Mount Carmel: and when the man of God saw her coming towards, he said to Giezi his servant: Behold that Sunamitess. Go therefore to meet her, and say to her: Is all well with thee, and with thy husband, and with thy son?

And she answered: Well. And when she came to the man of God to the mount, she caught hold on his feet: and Giezi came to remove her. And the man of God said: Let her alone, for her soul is in anguish, and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me. And she said to him: Did I ask a son of my lord? did I not say to thee: Do not deceive me?

Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go. If any man meets thee, salute him not: and if any man salutes thee, answer him not: and lay my staff upon the face of the child. But the mother of the child said: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose, therefore, and followed her. But Giezi was gone before them and laid the staff upon the face of the child, and there was no voice nor sense: and he returned to meet him, and told him, saying: The child is not risen. Eliseus therefore went into the house, and behold the child lay dead on his bed; and going in he shut the door upon him, and upon the child, and prayed to the Lord. And he went up and lay upon the child: and he put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he bowed himself upon him, and the child’s flesh grew warm. Then he returned and walked in the house, once to and fro: and he went up, and lay upon him: and the child gaped seven times and opened his eyes. And he called Giezi and said to him: Call this Sunamitess. And she being called went in to him: and he said: Take up thy son. She came and fell at his feet and worshipped upon the ground: and took up her son, and went out. And Eliseus returned to Galgal.

GOSPEL. Luke vii. 11-16.

At that time Jesus went into a city that is called Nairn; and there went with Him His disciples, and a great multitude. And when He came nigh to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow: and a great multitude of the city was with her. Whom when the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, He said to her: Weep not. And He came near and touched the brier. And they that carried it, stood still. And He said: Young man, I say to thee, arise. And he that was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And He gave him to his mother. And there came a fear on them all: and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet is risen up among us: and God hath visited His people.

Aids in Battle [4] The Devil and his cohorts as a siege force

Beloved brothers and sisters, we must strive with all our strength to repel the enemy of our souls, with full attention and vigilance, as he rages and aims his darts against every part of us that can be assaulted and wounded. This is what the Apostle Peter, in his epistle, warns.

·         He and his forces circle around each of us and watches. When weaknesses are found, the siege forces break through them and then penetrate to the inside.

·         The enemy presents to the eye’s seductive images and easy pleasures, so he can destroy chastity through the sense of sight.

·         He tempts the ears with seductive music, so that by hearing these sweet sounds, the soul relaxes its guard and loses strength.

·         He provokes the tongue by rebukes.

·         He instigates the hand to do evil through exasperating wrong.

·         He presents the lure of dishonest gains.

·         He promises earthly honors so that he can deprive us of heavenly ones.

·         He makes a show of false things, so that he can steal away the true ones. And when he can’t deceive through stealth, he threatens explicitly and openly, holding out the fear of violent persecution to vanquish God’s servants.

·         For these reasons, beloved brothers and sisters, the mind ought to stand arrayed and armed against all the Devil’s deceiving snares and open threats, as ever ready to repel as the foe is ever ready to attack.

Good Works[5]

 

Lent is traditionally considered a particularly good time for performing corporal works of mercy (e.g., almsgiving, peacemaking, etc.). The importance of supplementing ascetical denial with active virtues is underscored in the Gospel (Luke 11.14-28), in which a man who has had a demon exorcized from him later becomes repossessed by the demon and seven other unclean spirits. Christ's point seems to be that holy practices such as fasting do indeed remove bad things from one's soul, but this is ultimately to no avail if the soul is not then filled with good things. This understanding is also operative in the Collect for the First Sunday of Lent:

 

O God, who by the yearly Lenten observance dost purify Thy Church, grant to Thy household that what they strive to obtain from Thee by abstinence, they may achieve by good works. 

Baptism[6] 

Supernatural Life begins at baptism. Jesus himself spoke of baptism in terms of a strict obligation: “unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” When new believers asked St. Peter, the first pope, what they should do, he declared: “Repent, and be baptized”. It is easy for us to take God’s fatherhood for granted. We say easily, “God is our Father” yet we forget that that during Christ’s time to say that could get you killed. This was why the Jews sought to kill Jesus because he called God his Father. When we are born anew in baptism, we are born not of human parentage but heavenly by what theologians call the “marvelous exchange.” In Jesus, God became what we are so that we might become what HE is. This is why God became man and this is why he gave us baptism. “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in you mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:11-14).

 

Fear not! Stand your ground, and you will see the victory the LORD will win for you today.

 

Catechism of the Catholic Church

 

Day 291 2244 -2257

The political community and the Church

2244 Every institution is inspired, at least implicitly, by a vision of man and his destiny, from which it derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its line of conduct. Most societies have formed their institutions in the recognition of a certain preeminence of man over things. Only the divinely revealed religion has clearly recognized man's origin and destiny in God, the Creator and Redeemer. the Church invites political authorities to measure their judgments and decisions against this inspired truth about God and man:

Societies not recognizing this vision or rejecting it in the name of their independence from God are brought to seek their criteria and goal in themselves or to borrow them from some ideology. Since they do not admit that one can defend an objective criterion of good and evil, they arrogate to themselves an explicit or implicit totalitarian power over man and his destiny, as history shows.

2245 The Church, because of her commission and competence, is not to be confused in any way with the political community. She is both the sign and the safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person. "The Church respects and encourages the political freedom and responsibility of the citizen."

2246 It is a part of the Church's mission "to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it. the means, the only means, she may use are those which are in accord with the Gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and circumstances."

IN BRIEF

2247 "Honor your father and your mother" (Deut 5:16; Mk 7:10).

2248 According to the fourth commandment, God has willed that, after him, we should honor our parents and those whom he has vested with authority for our good.

2249 The conjugal community is established upon the covenant and consent of the spouses. Marriage and family are ordered to the good of the spouses, to the procreation and the education of children.

2250 "The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life" (GS 47 # 1).

2251 Children owe their parents respect, gratitude, just obedience, and assistance. Filial respect fosters harmony in all of family life.

2252 Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children in the faith, prayer, and all the virtues. They have the duty to provide as far as possible for the physical and spiritual needs of their children.

2253 Parents should respect and encourage their children's vocations. They should remember and teach that the first calling of the Christian is to follow Jesus.

2254 Public authority is obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person and the conditions for the exercise of his freedom.

2255 It is the duty of citizens to work with civil authority for building up society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom.

2256 Citizens are obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order. "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

2257 Every society's judgments and conduct reflect a vision of man and his destiny. Without the light the Gospel sheds on God and man, societies easily become totalitarian.

HIS WE BELIEVE

PRAYERS AND TEACHINGS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Theological Virtues[7]

The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object.  There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. By faith, we believe in God and believe all that he has revealed to us and that Holy Church proposes for our belief. By hope we desire, and with steadfast trust await from God, eternal life and the graces to merit it. By charity, we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for love of God. Charity, the form of all the virtues, "binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Col 3:14).

Faith

Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his entire self to God." For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's will. "The righteous shall live by faith." Living faith "work[s] through charity."

The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. But "faith apart from works is dead": when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of his Body.

The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: "All however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks." Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: "So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."

The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties of the human being. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.

Hope

Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity.
 
Christian hope takes up and fulfills the hope of the chosen people, which has its origin and model in the hope of Abraham, who was blessed abundantly by the promises of God fulfilled in Isaac, and who was purified by the test of the sacrifice. "Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became the father of many nations."

Christian hope unfolds from the beginning of Jesus' preaching in the proclamation of the beatitudes; they trace the path that leads through the trials that await the disciples of Jesus. Hope is expressed and nourished in prayer, especially in the Our Father, the summary of everything that hope leads us to desire.
 
We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will. In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere "to the end" and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God's eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ. In hope, the Church prays for "all men to be saved."

Charity

Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
 
Jesus makes charity the new commandment. Whence Jesus says: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love." And again: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
 
Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the commandments of God and his Christ: "Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."
 
Christ died out of love for us, while we were still "enemies." The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ himself.

The Apostle Paul says: "charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." "If I . . . have not charity," says the Apostle, "I am nothing." Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, "if I . . . have not charity, I gain nothing." Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: "So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity."
 
The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which "binds everything together in perfect harmony. Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.

The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion. Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works.

Daily Devotions

·         Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them in fasting: Today's Fast: The Pope

·         Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

·         Offering to the sacred heart of Jesus

·         Make reparations to the Holy Face

·         Drops of Christ’s Blood

·         Universal Man Plan

·         Spring Cleaning

---

[1]http://www.shmoop.com/ezra-and-nehemiah/nehemiah-chapter-6-summary.html

[2]John Maxwell, The Maxwell Leadership Bible, 1982

[3] Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896

[4] Thigpen, Paul. Manual for Spiritual Warfare. TAN Books.

[5] http://www.holytrinitygerman.org/septlentcustoms.html

[6] Hahn, Scott, Signs of Life; 40 Catholic Customs and their biblical roots. Chap. 3. Baptism.

[7]http://www.legionofmarytidewater.com/news/news07/april/divinemysteries.htm

[8] Sheraton, Mimi. 1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (p. 892). Workman Publishing Company. Kindle Edition.

[9] Venerable Mary of Agreda. The Mystical City of God: Complete Edition Containing all Four Volumes with Illustrations (p. 770). Veritatis Splendor Publications. Kindle Edition

[10] https://www.sedona.net/best-time-to-visit

The Eucharist and 100 Priests Come to Trump's Mar-a-Lago